With a New Year often comes change. Not just a simple change of the calendar, but oftentimes a significant change. Many people resolve to change their diet or eating patterns to lose weight. Others change their drinking practices, TV watching, or social media usage because they developed bad habits. Some set personal goals or update existing ones to change the direction of their life. Most businesses make changes to gain continuous improvement, increase employee retention, add sales, or improve profitability. In each case, the reason for the change is better results. So this year, I’m making some changes too.
Upcoming Changes to GodBuddies
This next year for my blog, I’m changing the frequency of my posts to every other week. I will also shorten the length of my posts and include some reflection questions. The reason for these changes is to increase the engagement with you, my readers.
While this approach may seem counterintuitive, my sense is that these weekly posts have become too lengthy and get lost in your inbox. My hope is that shorter, focused messages every other week, will garner a few more minutes of your valuable time. With thousands of blogs, podcasts, and email newsletters at your disposal, I’m very grateful that you chose mine.
My mission is not changing though. I still believe that men need deeper, more authentic friendships. If you read my posts, you know that I also believe a specific type of friendship helps us become more godly men –what I call GodBuddies. So in that sense, I’m not changing. I will continue to provide information that helps men become better men. But I am changing my posts to help you deepen your friendships with other men.
What You Can Change
All I ask is that you continue to read along but also expand the conversation by adding a comment at the bottom of each post. Let’s keep the discussion going to sharpen each other’s thoughts. Please also forward the post to someone you think will find it interesting.
I also ask that you deepen your friendship with just one man this year. Start by sending him this post and continue the discussion directly over coffee, via text, phone call, or any of the other ways you communicate. Meet regularly to discuss each post.
But Why Change?
The reality is that most men desire something more from their friendships. Many of our friends remain stuck in their old ways. Our friendships remain at a surface level because we only talk about sports, the weather, and our kids. We are not helping each other become better men who help other men. So it’s time for a change.
We need friendships that are more authentic to help navigate the challenges of life. We need friends who will cheer for our accomplishments and hold us accountable to higher standards. It’s why I wrote that the highest form of friendship is a spiritual one and gave a formula that turns good friends into GodBuddies.
If your goal is to just become a good man, some good friends may help you change. But if your goal is to become a better man, a more godly man, you need a change that comes from learning to follow Jesus Christ, the ultimate role model for manhood.
What’s Coming Next?
With all this in mind, my posts will begin to arrive biweekly in your inbox. They will be shorter and include some discussion questions that I hope will increase your involvement.
The next series will focus on what I believe it takes for men to become more like Jesus. I will suggest some practices, beliefs, and pursuits that can help facilitate change to become more like Jesus. Know that this change will not be a quick fix but a slow and steady one. But it’s a much-needed improvement.
Of course, I will continue to suggest you find a GodBuddy with whom you can share this pursuit.
GodBuddy Focus
I imagine that is what many of you are thinking right now, “But I don’t need to change. I like my life as it is!”
Well, God, the Creator of everything, planted in every one of us a desire to know Him, love Him, worship Him, and obey Him. He gave us the knowledge of right and wrong and knows we won’t be completely satisfied apart from Him. He knows we will either get to know Him better or reject Him. God knows that we can’t overcome our sinful selves so He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to show us a better way to live. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we all need to change.
The reasons for change are to get better results in your life and make ours a better world. To do so, we need men who live up to higher standards of being a man. Men who want to become better men by learning from other men. Men who want to become GodBuddies.
For discussion:
- In your opinion, what keeps people from making changes in their life?
- Why are people reluctant to know God and trust Him with the good changes in their life?
- Knowing we all need to change in some way, what areas do you need to change?
- What burdens or practices do you carry around that keep you from changing?
Again, please add your comments below so we can continue the conversation. Then forward the post to a friend and get together to discuss this topic.
